By RUPERT CORNWELL
The Bush administration is stepping up pressure on Saudi Arabia to crack down on the financing of international terrorism - a step which is likely to worsen the already severely strained ties between the US and one of its key Gulf allies and sources of oil.
"Every nation around the world can do more, and that includes Saudi Arabia," Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman said yesterday in response to reports that Washington intends to present the Saudis with what amounts to an ultimatum to act against suspected terrorist financiers within 90 days, or have the US do so unilaterally.
This latest friction between the US and the Saudis follows allegations that charitable donations from the wife of Riyadh's ambassador to Washington may have found its way into the pockets of two of the September 11 hijackers. Of the 19 terrorists involved, 15 were Saudi citizens.
According to the Washington Post, a National Security Council task force is proposing the 90-day ultimatum to President Bush; the Saudis would be pressed to act even if there was not enough evidence against an individual to convict him in a court of law.
The US, the Post said, has drawn up a list of nine prime suspected financiers of al Qaeda. Of them, seven are Saudis, one is a Pakistani and the other an Egyptian.
The threat of drastic and perhaps unilateral US action is the product of years of frustration at Saudi foot-dragging in the fight against terrorism, and in ensuring that Saudi money does not flow into the terrorists' coffers.
Many US law enforcement officials and Congressmen claim the Bush administration has ducked confronting the Saudis head-on on the issue, in order not to alienate its biggest single oil supplier before a possible war with Iraq.
- INDEPENDENT
Story archives:
Links: War against terrorism
Timeline: Major events since the Sept 11 attacks
US presses Saudi Arabia to combat terror financing
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